Here you go, young man.

Hi, I'm John Clayton, and this is New Hampshire Crossroads.

Theme Music Tonight, we're at Holman Stadium in Nashua, home of the Nashua Pride.

And in this show, we're going to meet some of the people who bring America's pastime to the people of New Hampshire.

Get your Pride merchandise here.

(cheering) Music There's something strangely indefinable about a professional baseball game.

The sights, the sounds.

And if you're near the concession stand, the smells.

We'll look at all of those various elements tonight here from Holman Stadium in Nashua.

But also in tonight's program, we're going to the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Goffstown to look at a program of importance to the inmates.

I feel not a prisoner, not like a prisoner.

I feel part of the community, part of the outside world.

Then we'll travel to Washington, D.C., to see how some folks from New Hampshire took part in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Need a brand new couple, everybody circle.

And back.

But first, let's take a look at what goes on behind the scenes with the Nashua Pride.

The Nashua Pride are the only minor league baseball team in all of New Hampshire.

They play 140 games a season, 70 of them here at Holman Stadium in Nashua.

And there's a reason that they have one of the best facilities in the Atlantic League.

Check out this grass.

Now check out the man who makes it green.

Infield’s good.

I’d say this is the best infield I ever seen in my life.

Now, George Toma is the groundskeeper that make the Pride so proud of their home stadium here at Holman Stadium.

Tell me, George, from the Kansas City Royals to the Nashua Pride.

A lot of stops in between, were there not?

Well, actually, this is my 59th year in the game.

Most of my career was with the Kansas City Royals for 47 years.

I can tell by the hat that the loyalty’s still there.

And I still work for the Kansas City Royals.

And, so I just wanted something fun thing to do during the summer.

I'm retired.

And so I thought I'd come up here and have a little fun.

How do you keep the field looking the spectacular shape that it’s in?

Yeah, we have to maintain it, it has to be fertilized.

It has to be watered.

You can do it on a low budget because we didn't have the money here, you know, to do it.

So everything was done without money, practically.

But the good grass, if you're a homeowner, you should start on your lawn right now.

Labor Day is the proper time to start.

If you had money, only to fertilize your yard once a year.

Just didn't have no money for rest.

Now is the time to fertilize your yard.

And I always like to throw a little fertilizer down around Thanksgiving Day because we eat turkey, so the grass did a good job for us.

So we should give it a little feeding around that time or right before Thanksgiving Day.

How many Super Bowls have you worked on?

Just to give our viewers a sense of your resume?

Lord be willing, this will be my 34th.

I did all 33 and this will be number 34, although I work for my son now, Chip Toma.

For the last three years he has been the head groundskeeper for National Football League.

So he's my boss.

Cover up.

You got to bring em in early.

With dirt like this, you don't have to cover it.

Music I got it!

Music Bob Tolan is the manager of the Nashua Pride, and he's got a pretty impressive Major League resume.

Bob, I wonder, do your players know enough about your career to make your experience count?

I think they think I'm too old.

I don't think they even believe I even played baseball.

Well, you know, our players, they know that I played because I've told them.

I have told them I've got five World Series rings.

Let them know that I know what it takes to win.

And I've been there.

I've done that.

I've had my ups and downs.

It's a long season and they just have to try to get to where I've been.

And some of these guys still have a chance.

You mentioned the big leagues.

Now you have a roster, we'll call them Minor League players, but you have a groundskeeper who's a big leaguer, George Toma.

What do, what can he mean to a team like the Pride?

George is a superstar as far as taking care of the field.

I didn't really know all the things that George did as far as the Super Bowls and things like that.

But George has done a fantastic job here.

There's sometimes George won't even let us practice because he thinks it might hurt the grass.

So we'll just pull practice off.

And, I have no problem working with George because he's doing what's best for the ballclub also.

All right, Jerry, thank you for much.

Great job as usual.

We're going to leave Holman Stadium in Nashua for a few moments to go over to Goffstown, to the New Hampshire State Prison for Women, where some of the inmates have spent the last four years engaging in a special program of service to children.

Yeah.

Music Take a drive past the women's prison in Goffstown on any summer day, and you're likely to see Anne Marie Reynolds tending the garden.

Anne Marie is an inmate.

Among the rows of flowers and vegetables, she finds a bit of peace in her life.

For many of the prisoners here, this garden is a symbol of hope.

Important changes have happened in their lives as a result of their efforts here.

In 1996, we had a lot of vegetables in the garden, so we brought them to the New Horizons Center, the soup kitchen in Manchester.

And when we came back, we saw outside kids who were very badly dressed.

So moved by what they saw, Anne Marie and several other inmates decided they had to do something.

They call it Hems With Hearts.

We started making a lot of clothes for the homeless.

Maybe until now, we have more than 2000 outfits made for the homeless.

Well, I started sewing clothes for my friend's children.

And, after I started doing that, I thought, well, you know, I'd really like to sew for other kids.

That was four years ago.

Since then, hundreds of New Hampshire's neediest children have benefited.

I felt like it gave me purpose.

I found my niche.

I thought, this is it.

I feel complete and fulfilled and doing things for people, you know?

Sewing for the homeless, making sure they have clothes, taking care of them.

You know, it filled my need to nurture.

Alice Roberts is the prison chaplain.

The more they can do to reach out into the community, the more prepared they will be to go back to the community, and the more the community will be prepared to to take them back and accept them as human beings instead of monsters, which now, I think is the general idea of the people that are incarcerated.

(sewing machine whirring) Every one of us who participates in this program finds a goal.

And it is something that is bring a lot of good in their life.

Movement is now authorized, movement is now authorized.

Most of the women involved in Hems With Hearts have lived lives full of pain.

Many were abused as children, many grew up to be battered women.

(no dialogue) My sentence is 16 to life.

I am a victim of domestic violence.

And, 14 years and a half ago, I killed my husband.

But I redeem myself by helping the homeless.

Music Before they became involved in Hems With Hearts, many of these women made a quilt.

It speaks loudly about the pain they've lived with.

Music The quilt toured New Hampshire.

Now it hangs in the prison.

I had never have a voice, had a voice.

I never said anything at my trial.

So I felt really voiceless my entire life.

So when I got to participate with the quilt, I thought, here's my voice.

Music What brought me here was, I was convicted, convicted of second degree murder, and had done something very awful.

So that's what brought me here.

This is where I have been at.

I prayed to die.

I prayed to be safe.

And then it got to the day that everything happened, that I came here.

I couldn't take any more hurt.

The pain.

And I did try to die.

And through people here and a fantastic therapist and people not willing to let me go, I had to come to prison to learn how to want to live.

Music The fear, for the most part, for myself and I’m sure with others, is the fear of asking for help, the spouse finding out, and being beaten for it or being yelled at and just more abuse added to what you've already gone through.

And.

Music Today I feel safe.

I feel that I can trust, not fear.

I can tell someone that I'm hurting so we accomplish a lot.

The people who have worked on this quilt have come from a terrible place of pain, and yet they have because of their their growth and their work through the pain, they have taken their same skills that they used to make this quilt, and they have used those skills to reach out to those people who are less fortunate than them.

Here, Annie made, made a beautiful baby quilt.

All the girls who are working in this program want to do their best all the time.

And some say that they look like factory-made.

They could wear them themselves.

They would like them for their own children.

Here.

A woman is really a specialist.

She crocheted the most beautiful afghans.

Music I need to reach out and help as many people as I can, because it's the only way for me to survive and to live by, helping.

You know, Superintendent Coplan, there are things that I'm going to miss, which I made, and I'm going to miss.

I know you’re going to miss this outfit.

Yes.

You’re going to miss this outfit.

I made it with much love.

They may need to give back to the community.

And they realize that.

I constantly oversee the Hems With Hearts project.

As I'm watching them actually do the sewing, It's amazing what I see.

I see young women coming in here from day one with a chip on their shoulder the size of Texas, and I see that change in a matter of weeks and months.

There was a woman working on a Hems With Hearts project one day, and she said to me, Superintendent, you know, the only needle that I've ever dealt with in life is one that I shot up drugs every day, and now I'm doing something productive with that needle.

Music I feel not a prisoner.

Not like a prisoner.

I feel part of the community, part of the outside world.

That's how I feel.

And that's why I am doing it.

Just to reach out to the, to the world outside to help the children, the homeless children.

Music We're back at Holman Stadium where the action is continuing on the field and behind the scenes.

Music (crowd cheering) Kyle Oliver's going to be Shags tonight, the Nashua Pride mascot.

And, Kyle, I'm wondering where you go to school to learn how to be a mascot?

Actually, I went to Boston University, and I was Rhett the mascot there.

Is it glamorous?

Is it fun working with the kids?

What do you like best?

Oh, it's definitely fun.

I like the kids.

I like, I like being able to, you know, basically do whatever I want in kind of an anonymous atmosphere.

This costume must have fantastic weight loss capabilities.

You look pretty warm early on.

Yes, it does actually.

Last season I did it for the entire season and I lost 20 pounds.

And down the stretch they come!

It’s gonna be close!

And Christy just gets in there.

Christy by a half a step.

Get your Pride merchandise here.

It's $5, please.

We have these pennants right here.

These are $3.

When you work a game and you work the stands like this, do you prefer to work the home side or the visiting side?

Does it matter?

I, usually the home side.

I mean, most people will buy stuff on the home side, but I work just the whole thing.

I just go up and down and go up and down the rows and then if things aren't going so good, then I just go out and sit out for an inning and then come back.

Do you wanna get you can get one of these pennants, you can hang this up on your wall at home.

You can get that.

Do people tend to buy more when the team's winning?

Oh yeah.

Yeah, unless they're really involved in the game.

But usually when they're winning, they're excited, so they'll buy more.

(people cheering) Yeah.

Thank you.

Enjoy the game.

The Nashua Pride play in the Northern League, but for our next story, we're going south.

All the way to Washington, D.C.

That's where over 100 craftspeople from New Hampshire took part in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Producer Chip Neal was there.

Music This summer, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival hosted one state and two countries who shared their cultural heritage for two weeks on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

They were on display for thousands and thousands of festival visitors from all over the world.

New Hampshire was the featured state, and the featured countries were Romania Music and South Africa.

Music It was a major undertaking, and it could not have happened without the collaboration and support of New Hampshire business and industry and the Celebrate New Hampshire Culture Organizing Committee, as well as the Smithsonian Institute and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, who oversaw the research and presentation of the New Hampshire program.

And let's not forget the help of our politicians, many of whom were there.

And back.

But the magic was happening out on the mall, where over 100 musicians, artists, craftspeople and traditional workers were doing what they love to do most.

Largest log driving.

Sharing what they do with you.

Well, we're going to build a horse barn for the Smithsonian Folklore Festival.

And, we've got volunteers here who are working the timbers.

The horse barn’s going to look pretty much like this when we're finished.

We'll be raising that by hand in a traditional way.

Ready?

Flip.

It's a traditional method of joining heavy wooden timbers without relying on metal connections.

We use wooden dowels or pegs.

In timber framing, what really takes the time is fashioning the timbers, cutting the joints, as you can see some fellows doing in the background here.

And that may take a month or two, done in the very traditional way.

The raising itself, however, can happen in just a few hours.

Carry.

Set the feet down.

Pike poles.

Hold, hold for pike poles.

Why does a festival need a curator?

Because this particular festival, unlike many other festivals that are put together, is really a temporary museum exhibit mounted outdoors under tents.

And the focus, instead of on objects is on living culture.

And the only way to explain what goes on with living culture is to present people and what they do.

What generation will your son be, running a dairy farm?

He’s the ninth.

Wow.

I'm the eighth.

He's the ninth.

And I got a grandson around here that’s the 10th.

Now, and this is the same farm?

Same, same farm, same house that they built back in the 1700s.

Well, we get up and the first thing in the morning, at 5:30, we head for the milking barn.

Start putting the milk machines on about 6:00, and it usually takes us a couple hours to milk.

Music Actually, when we started doing the field work, people started telling us, did you know that the first this was in New Hampshire or the biggest that or, you know, just all the superlatives started coming out.

And so it, Lynn and I have, Lynn Martin and I have jokingly said, well, we should start researching all these firsts and bests and maybe make special signs.

Earl Tupper of Berlin, New Hampshire, invented tupperware and founded Tupper Plastics Company in 1938.

Ready?

Lift!

Push.

Hold.

Hold for the pike poles.

Hold.

Then we clean up the parlor, then we get ready to, well either myself on my son, gets ready to feed the cattle with silage and grass, grass silage and corn silage and grain mixture.

Music This comes out of Swenson Granite, right in Concord.

Now, that will just pop right off.

I am a sheep farmer in southwest New Hampshire.

We run anywhere from 200 to 500 ewes, and we use the dogs every single day to move the sheep around the pasture or also to move them through town.

It's not at all an uncommon sight to see me or my son or my shepherd with say 100 sheep walking down through the middle of Chesham.

Good job.

All right.

Now let's get that load down.

The first women’s strike in the nation: in 1828, women mill workers at the Cocheco Mills in Dover, New Hampshire, went out on strike to protest new mill regulations, in what became known as the Factory Girls Strike.

Every third bite that we take is dependent on a honeybee pollinating some of these, some of these flowers and some of these fruits.

And then we have to clean out the stable where, where they are, and we clean that out with a tractor, just go through and push it all into a pile.

And we have sawdust that we put down, so we keep it nice and clean.

And then that's the end, about the end of the milking part of it.

After that, depending on what time of year it is, sometimes in the winter we might go for a snowmobile ride.

Music One of the things people think of when they think of New Hampshire, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is covered bridges.

You know, that's right up there with lakes and trees.

So, we felt this was the best symbol of our state that we could get down here.

Music A soirée normally, in my grandparents’ generation, my parents’ generation, took place in the kitchen usually, but in the home.

And they would move out, the stories I have heard from people moving everything out of the kitchen, including the cast iron stove, in order to make room.

And they would go all night.

Music And when, at 4:00, we start all over doing the same thing again.

So at about 4:30 to a quarter to 5:00, we're starting putting milk machines on again to milk cows again.

Seven days a week.

Hip, hip!

Hooray!

Woo!

Good job!

Music You got to come down and (inaudible) on the people below.

Music (audience cheering) Theme Music Hey, I got programs here.

Hey, I want to get a program.

All right, yes sir, there you are!

I’ll get, I’ll get the money later.

I got to, I got to thank you, Jocelyn.

I mean, you really taught me how to do this.

I didn't teach you anything.

We hope you enjoyed our look behind the scenes at the operation of the Nashua Pride.

For Jocelyn Benson, I'm John Clayton.

We'll see you next week on New Hampshire Crossroads.

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Theme Music Get your Pride merchandise here.

Theme Music